Nokia cancels X7, readies E7 for next month

Nokia has cancelled plans to launch the X7 exclusively with US mobile provider AT&T, just before the device was supposed to be announced. "This was Nokia's decision," an anonymous source, who asked not to be named because the companies have not made a public announcement, told Reuters. "AT&T would have been likely to announce the phone fairly soon."

The two companies had been planning on making an announcement ahead of the Mobile World Congress trade show next month in Barcelona, Spain. Nokia reportedly pulled the X7 because it believed the touchscreen phone wasn't going to receive enough marketing and subsidies support from AT&T, but the company still plans to launch the X7 in other markets, according to anonymous sources quoted by The Wall Street Journal. The cancellation is yet another setback for Nokia, which is struggling to compete in the mobile phone market as of late.

At the same time, Nokia's Finnish store has put the E7 up for pre-order, with a price tag of €599 ($806.97). The business device should arrive in February, 2011; the phone was originally supposed to ship last year, but the company decided to delay it.

The E7 is similar to the Nokia N8, but features a full slide-out keyboard and is intended to appeal to earlier users of Nokia's Communicator line and Qwerty-keyboard phones. It was introduced at the Nokia World trade show on September 14, 2010 at a list price of €495 ($666.86), before taxes and operator subsidies.